Page:A Legend of Camelot, Pictures and Poems, etc. George du Maurier, 1898.djvu/25



HE bore her burden all that day

Half-faint; the unconverted clay

A burden grew, beneath the sun,

In many a manner more than one.

Half-faint the whitening road along

She bore it, singing (in her song)—

The shepherds gazed, but marvelled not;

They knew the ways of Camelot!

She heeded neither man nor beast:

Her shadow lengthened toward the east.

A little castle she drew nigh,

With seven towers twelve inches high. . ..

A baby castle, all a-flame

With many a flower that hath no name.

It had a little moat all round:

A little drawbridge too she found,

On which there stood a stately maid,

Like her in radiant locks arrayed. ..

Save that her locks grew rank and wild,

By weaver's shuttle undefiled! . ..

Who held her brush and comb, as if

Her faltering hands had waxèd stiff

With baulkt endeavour! whence she sung

A chant, the burden whereof rung:

All breathless, Braunighrindas stopt

To listen, and her load she dropt,

And rolled in wonder wild and blear

The whites of her eyes grown green with fear:

—"What is your name, young person, pray?"

—"Knights call me Fidele-strynges-le-Fay."

—"You wear a wedding-ring, I see!"

—"I do . . . Gauwaine he gave it me". ..

—"Are you Gauwaine his wedded spouse?

Is this Gauwaine his. . . country-house?"

—"I am . . . it is . . . we are . . . oh who,

That you should greet me thus, are you?"

—"I am ANOTHER! . . . since the morn

The fourth month of the year was born!" . ..

—"What! that which followed when the last

Bleak night of bitter March had past?" . ..

—"The same."—"That day for both hath done!

And you, and he, and I, are ONE!" . ..

Then hand in hand, most woefully,

They went, the willows weeping nigh;

Left hand in left was left to cling!

On each a silver wedding-ring.

And having walkt a little space,

They halted, each one in her place:

And chanted loud a wondrous plaint

Well chosen: wild, one-noted, quaint:

Atween the river and the wood,

Knee-deep 'mid whispering reeds they stood:

The green earth oozing soft and dank

Beneath them, soakt and suckt and sank! . ..

Yet soak-and-suck-and-sink or not,

They, chanting, craned towards Camelot. . ..

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